A Study Suggests Gut Bacteria Can Slow Your Internal Clock

As the contents of one’s gut continues to draw wonder and awe within the wellness Zeitgeist (probiotics, anyone?), consider a new study that claims a specific range of gut-produced chemicals may slow down the body’s aging process. The chemicals are known as “indoles,” and while they can be found in the wild — in flowers and vegetables, for example — they are also found in feces due to their ability to break down tryptophan, an amino acid in some foods.

To test their hypothesis, researchers separated worms into two groups: One group was injected with bacteria that could produce indoles in their gut microbiome, and the other group was isolated from indole-generating bacteria. The researchers found that the group of worms that could produce indoles experienced a prolonged “health span” — otherwise known as an extended proportion of time where the worms remained free of age-related illness and wear. Health span is not the same as life span, which measures the length of one’s life.

The indoles worms remained physically mobile for a longer period of time, compared to the worms that weren’t able to produce the chemicals. They were also able to reproduce for a period over twice as long as the former group. Researchers found similar results with mice, where the indoles mice proved to be more resistant to infections. In effect, the bacteria-produced indoles seemed to slow down the physical indicators of aging.